Clever spam - beware

dedtiredOctober 23, 2012

I got an email supposedly from my former boss. It went to my Inbox, not the Spam folder. I have not heard from her in years, so I was surprised to see her name pop up. I knew it was spam when I read it because she would never ask me to send money, especially when we have not remained friendly. However, if this had come from a friend or relative, I might have taken it seriously. Still, I would never send money in response to something like this no matter who sent it. Here it is:

Am writing this message to you in deep regret, I am currently stuck in England,United-Kingdom.I came down here on a short vacation with my family few days ago,unfortunately we were mugged last night in an alley by a gang of thugs on our way back from shopping,i was injured and all our belongings cash, cellphone and credit cards were all stolen at "gun point" Honestly it was beyond a dreadful experience for us.

I've reported to the police here and cancelled all our cards, it appeared I acted quickly enough or they almost would have succeeded in cleaning out my bank account. I'm really having some difficulties clearing our hotel bills so we can catch a flight back home as soon as possible,i need your financial assistance in sorting out the hotel bills, I need you to loan me some money,promise i will refund you as soon as am back home.Please Kindly write back so I can give you details on how you can send the money over here,i need your urgent help.

Awaiting your prompt response

Thanks

Carolyn

Honestly, the tone of the writing even sounds like Carolyn. This is so clever, since it even managed to incorporate her name into the Subject line and her signature. In her case, she travels quite a bit so it really could have been her writing. My first thought was that she sent the email to the wrong person. I started to send an email in reply to say her email had been hacked, but I noticed that the reply email used a zero instead of an O, so I didn't send it.

Anyway, spammers and con artists are getting more clever all the time.

This happened to me via Facebook when I first joined. Neighbor called me to see if I was OK. A number of people I hadn't heard from in years also called. In fact, one of the KT people even had a request to send money for me! This also happened to grandson just before my supposed "loss". I wonder if anyone does send money to this email.

My aged MIL got a got from her "grandson who was stuck in Ecuador and going to jail if he didn't get some money"

Luckily, she doesn't have any money to give anyone, but she was convinced not only that is was her grandson, but that she was responsible for him going to jail.
(She thought is was my SO's 29 yr old son)

She was so uspet she didn't tell anyone for days. Then she told her daughter and other son. They both believed her and called us to accuse said grandson of asking his g-ma for money.

Now this young man is not an angel mind you, but he is not disrespectful and would never ask her for money.

Obviously we talked to him and of course it was NOT him...

So this stupid a$$-scam has caused a family rift.
His uncle and aunt still think it was him because their mother said so. (mind you, she is 89 and has had 3 strokes)

That's a shame, Salgal. Really, when you read these emails, you have to be pretty gullible to fall for them. However, for the first minute or so, I truly thought this email was from Carolyn and she had sent it to my address inadvertently. This is the kind of thing that would happen to her! It was just too weird that she would contact me, so that's when the red flags went up.

Also, I had just heard from someone where I used to work, inviting me to a 40 year reunion at Carolyn's home, so I thought it was going to be news of the reunion, although I already told them I will not be there.

Oh well, the bad guys are getting very crafty. What a waste of a brain.

salgal, this same thing happened to our neighbor's inlaws and her parents. The inlaws went to western union to send the money and the lady questioned them. Did some checking for them to find it was a scam. They were asking for $17,000. Her mother told them off. Both of them were told their grandsons was in jail and needed bail money. My neighbor thinks there is a connection in some way. They both had inherited money recently.

That happened to us over the phone~~the gal said she was my
DH's neice from Missouri and was out her after leaving her DH with her 3 kids and was stuck in San Diego at a garage had a break down and her wallet was stolen she needed over the phone for us to give credit card info to help pay~~~we have not seen this neice since she was a child too weird. I told her I would call her uncle he was at work and for her to call me back~~my DH said to give her his # at work and for me to call his sister, and have her call the real neice so we could confirm this story.

This scamer called back I gave her my DH's number which was
to the Walnut Sheriffs station for LA County~~my DH was watch commander that night~~this ballsy girl called and did her whole scam to him. He made her call 2 different times and recorded it LOL they found the area it was coming from but could not catch the crooks!

We could not believe she called the station 2X's~~they answer that it is a station and he answers in his full name and is the watch commander~~~stupid people!!!

It really shook me up the details she knew and that she would take it that far;(

I haven't gotten anything like that but have had 2 e-mail scams in the last couple of weeks...The 1st, said it was from our credit card asking for more information, go to this site etc. I did get in touch with our card holder and she sent me a site to forward the message...And just last week, I had a message from Comcast, stating that our service would be ended because or a problem with our credit card and there again, go to this site....... I knew right away this was a scam, we don't have our Comcast bill put on the credit card....But, you know, there would be those that would think this is on the up and up and fall for it......
I think if these people are that smart to think up these scams, why don't they use that brain and get a decent job....Although that job wouldn't pay as much......

My husband's hotmail got hacked and to all his contacts an email was sent saying he was mugged in London and needed money. No one fell for this but some called to see he was okay. ..A few days ago on FB, a HS friend I haven't seen in decades and am not in touch with, was " mugged" in Europe and needed money. All I can say, some people are gullible.

Several months ago, got a call from grandson needing money--Only I don't have any grandsons,--asked him his name, had phone # on caller ID and told him NOPE-- Same young guy called back about 10 minutes later, but I had already reported him to police dept and attorney general. Yes he gave me his name and phone #
Hope they caught him.

unfortunately I know a couple of elderly grandparents that have fallen prey by the grandchild in trouble scam. Just so sad that any one would do such a thing. Sick people out there!

Just never go along with out calling someone to confirm any of these type scams. And of course never click on any of the links in the emails sometimes just clicking on a link is enough to start a download and install onto your pc with out you knowing it, click jacking. Things are not always as they appear!

I got one of those too about a year ago. It had similar wording and plea. Mine said my friend was in Greece and needed $2500 to clear some bills and to get home. I would be paid back after getting home.

I ignored it. Apparently, it must have worked a few times for him. He's still at it.

I forgot the URL, but the FBI would like to know about these. Copy the whole thing or forward it to them. Use Google to find the proper URL.

I get very few of these, even on my "spam" address because I don't even open those types of emails. Often, just by opening them in the wrong program you can verify your email to the sender. All it takes is a little background code. The scammers bank on people being gullible, but they cash in on the ones who are so curious they can't NOT open the email. It's like the telemarketer scum who prey on people who just HAVE to answer that phone! With the Caller ID and the blocking I cut down the phone garbage to very little too.

I forgot til you all mentioned it my mom got one about a grandson~~they said he was in Italy LOL~~was in a car wreck and did not want us to know~~~my mom was shaken but she said she knew he would always call us first and how could he be in Italy when he worked about 15 miles from her! I called him and he call his gma to settle her nerves. Stupid people!!

The husband of One of the ladies in my garden club had his email hacked and suddenly everyone he knows is getting these sent to them saying he is in another country and needs money for an emergency. The bad thing in this case is he does often travel to foreign countries and since they have access to his email account they now know specifics about him and his family and friends to make it sound very real.
We all got them in our email since she has us on her email list which was a part of his.
Luckily we all knew they were not out of the country since we had just had a meeting and she was there, she had just undergone breast cancer surgery and is recuperating at home.
One of the ladies called them to alert them but of course they already knew by then since family had called immediately. Like they really need this on their plate at this time.